The recent verdict in the Ellen Pao trial (against her employer for gender discrimination) highlights the risks employment lawyers face in trial. Pao sought nearly $16 million in lost wages and millions more in punitive damages. Had a verdict been returned in her favor, her attorney, Alan Exelrod, could have also petitioned the court for attorneys’ fees, estimated to be in the millions.

While attorneys’ fees are widely available in successful employment claims, they are often criticized by employers for encouraging litigation, in spite of the strong public policy that support attorneys’ fees.

While Pao’s case was in the millions, many times the recovery of wages for low-wage workers can be small. Without attorneys’ fees, employment attorneys working on a contingency fee basis alone would otherwise be dissuaded from pursuing a low-damages trial.

However, sometimes the smallest recovery can be the most important to employees. In my own practice, a recovery of $500 against an employer who wrongfully withheld $500 can make all the difference to an employee’s ability to pay rent, a cell phone, gas, food, etc. A small recovery may also represent the end of an illegal wage practice. Imagine an employer who requires employees to work “off the clock.” or denies rest-breaks or meal periods. In total, these damages may not amount to millions, but pursuing recovery of these small claims ensures workers are paid correctly under the law.

These attorney fee statutes for wage cases are designed to permit employees to recover full wages where legal fees would greatly exceed the underlying claim.[1] The purpose of the fee award is to “ensure effective access to the judicial process by providing attorneys’ fees for prevailing plaintiffs with wage and hour grievances”.[2]